The Ethical Epic
Understanding Ethics Through Cicero.

There are many examples of people making ethical decisions everyday. Some of them are as small as deciding whether or not to give back an extra dollar in change from a grocery clerk to deciding whether or not to release insider information to the public regarding the safety of cigarettes. Here are a few examples:

• Advertising and Marketing
• Business and Workplace
• Computing and the Internet
• Environment
• General
• Public Health and Medicine

If you don't see the topic that you are interested in or have a topic that you would like to see added, please email us.

Advertising and Marketing

• The Advertising Graveyard (http://www.zeldman.com/adgraveyard/) features numerous ads that contain potentially offensive content. While many of the ads were never used, some of them were. You can decide whether or not the companies made a good decision whether or not to show the ad.
• The Marketing Hall of Shame (http://www.hallofshame.org/) was created by a consumer upset by bad customer service experiences. Be sure to read through the section "Ethical Marketing" to find out what companies and organizations are doing to guarantee consumers that they will not be treated unfairly.

Business and Workplace

• Colorado State University has a number of case studies on business ethics (http://e-businessethics.com/).
• The Workplace Ethics Activity (http://www.angelfire.com/ks/tonyaskinner/ethics1.html) has several case studies for teachers to use with their students.
• Lockheed-Martin lists has created a game called Gray Matters to help employees make ethical decisions on the job (http://onlineethics.org/corp/graymatters/martin.html). Play through their scenarios and see if you agree with Lockheed-Martin's stance on whether or not it's ok to take a few post-it notes home with you.
• Texas Instruments also has clear policy on what constitutes ethical behavior in the workplace. It's also available online (http://onlineethics.org/corp/ti-ethics.html).

Computing and the Internet

• Computer Ethics (http://library.thinkquest.org/26658/) is an online resource for K-12 teachers and students to look at the various ethical issues that have surfaced with the increasing use of computers and other new technologies.
• Remember Napster? Use this online Powerpoint presentation (http://www.scu.edu/faculty/itrs/LMU/napster_files/v3_document.htm) to weigh the ethics on Napster.

Environment

• Rachel Carson (http://www.rachelcarsonhomestead.org/rcbio.html) spent 15 years working for the U.S. Bureau of histories in the 1930s and 1940s until she decided to change course and write a book, Silent Spring, telling the public about the dangers of long-term mis-using of pesticides.

General

• If you're looking for a comprehensive site that covers ethics in numerous areas, visit the ethics update (http://ethics.acusd.edu/index.html). There are numerous Powerpoint presentations, video clips, case studies, and resources so be sure to do some exploring.
• Find out where you stand in your attitudes on ethics by taking this short quiz (http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/exer.bradyinstrument.html). You might just be surprised.

Public Health and Medicine

• Jeffrey Wigand blew the whistle on big tobacco by appearing in a 60 Minutes interview in the mid-nineties with the insider information he had learned about the tobacco industry while working as an executive at Brown and Williamson. You can visit his Web site (http://www.jeffreywigand.com/) to find out more or just watch The Insider, a movie based on the story. Do you think that you would have made the same decisions that Wigand did?